In the interest of fans of music from a specific genre, about once a quarter, I offer an overview of standout albums released in a specific genre. It seems a good way to try to keep up on the multitudes of recordings which arrive on my desk.

As we head towards the Spring, it only seems right to leave the days of Winter dark behind on a droning grind of metal.

Nothing seems to breathe life into the grey months quite like relentlessly pounding powerchords, tortured vocals and drums pounded with relentless precision. It’s music made for dingy rooms, burning hearths and the like.

Once the weather brightens up, it seems that Spring gets jazzy. But that post comes later.

Here are my top 5 thrash and bash sessions of 2014 (so far):

CONAN: Blood Eagle (Napalm Records): This UK outfit manages to take doom metal and make it sound, if not fresh, raw and renewed. The way it does it is through technical prowess that draws the maximum emotional response from every detuned riff and machine precise drum roll in tunes like the opening 10 minute-long Crown of Talons. Somewhere in the background, the vocals echo into the sonic abyss so distant that after countless plays I can hardly make out a lyric. It doesn’t matter, by the final notes of the closing tune Altar of Grief, Conan will have you worshipping at the feet of the bombastic barbarian beats.

EARTH CRISIS: Salvation of Innocents (Candlelight): The eighth album from these metalcore progenitors doesn’t mess with the formula that made the band so essential in the nineties. Since reforming in 2007, they have put out releases with frequent conceptual framework such as this one which centers around cruelty to animals and liberation. Pounding mid-tempo tunes with some really razor sharp riffage in Out of the Cages, seriously fast breaks in The Morbid Glare and a lyrical break in The Pallid Surgeon which will have you punching the air.

HARK: Crystalline (Season of Mist): Recorded at Monnow Valley Studios where everyone from Black Sabbath, Portishead, Judas Priest and Rush have laid down tracks, the latest from this Welsh Trio is varied. Mixed with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, the album ranges from full on stoner sludge of the opener Palendromeda to an almost grungey tribute in Black Hole South West. But mostly, it just rides classic heavy styles to great success. A band you really want to see live.

MOUNT SALEM: Endless (Metal Blade): Like Toronto’s excellent Blood Ceremony, this Chicago quartet rides on the potentcy of a female vocalist with a love of heavy-handed Hammond organ. Emily Kopplin can really belt out the psychedelic-tinged occult-doom lyrics in tunes such as The Tower and lengthy Hysteria. But the band isn’t all about the ritualistic. Mescaline is as hippie a track as can be and the End is almost a bluesy acid trip.

TROLLFEST: Kaptein Kaos (NoiseArt Records): These Norwegian folk metal freaks could craft backing tracks for the metal Muppets if such a thing existed. The band’s sixth release continues to run the gamut of ideas that would make Looney Tunes’ composer Karl Stalling smile as well as put a smirk on the face of someone in Napalm Death. The pattern followed is a quirky instrumental followed by a far more familiar folk metal thrash out with vocals that are utterly indiscernible. Sometimes, it’s pretty hilarious as on the tortured power metal of Ave Maria or the crazed dance of Troll Gegen Mann.

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